Standing our ground

[Dave The Man]

A

season of promise faltered, and came with significant challenges. Yet the Magpies returned to the finals and enjoyed a victory, and through some player turmoil witnessed the emergence of the next wave of talented youth.

So while 12 regular seasons wins and finals triumph in Adelaide might seem to be a step back 2007’s preliminary final visit, coach Mick Malthouse can see the positives. In fact, he believes in many ways that 2008 was a better season than its predecessor. He speaks with Damian Barrett.

DB: From the outside looking in, Collingwood's performances fell away in 2008. Is that the way you saw it?

MM: I know there are those who say '07 was a good year because we went within a kick of upsetting Geelong in the preliminary final. Well, I would say that I thought this year was a better year.

In saying that, I know we finished sixth. I don't measure things on win-loss. We had less wins than last year (13 home-and-away wins and two finals wins in '07, 12 and one in '08). Percentage was better (101 in '07, 111 in '08), and that is significant, meaning we defended better. We got beaten by the eventual premier twice. Badly.

That was a negative, as we thought we had coverage there, but didn't. Two sides had an advantage over us, and we need to work out why.

We did well against Geelong, we did okay interstate. We lost Licca (Paul Licuria), (Nathan) Buckley and (James) Clement, and that's a lot of footy, but we had coverage. Presti (Simon Prestigiacomo) we had for only the last few games. (Anthony) Rocca played just six or seven games. We'd earmarked (Sean) Rusling for a big role, and he was gone before the first game. Brad Dick was injured when the year started.

DB: You beat Adelaide in an elimination final, lost badly to St Kilda the following week, ended up sixth. Does sixth-place reflect exactly where you were at?

MM: I don't know whether we had the side to go all the way. Very few sides win premierships with young players. You can have young players in a premiership side, but they need to be supported by players who have 50-100 games behind them. I felt we got as much as we could have this year. People will argue that

Sounds like Mick did not Believe we can not win the Flag this year and coached to Develop more Then to Coach to win.


Story Here

 

[duds0101]

Good way to do it. Long term worthwhile I am hoping.

 

[The Royal Sampler]

I tend to agree with MM. I don't think we have the side to go all the way in 2009 either, but these days premierships aren't built so quickly, and I think the side we are building for the next decade will be very, very competitive.

Hopefully 2009 will see the birth of the new midfield, and the evolution of our new spine (Reid, Dawes, Brown, Wood) for the next ten years. Exciting times.

 

[glasseye]

A

Sounds like Mick did not Believe we can not win the Flag this year and coached to Develop more Then to Coach to win.


Story Here

thats not how I read it. He would have gone in expecting to win but injuries brought us up short. The up side is we had so many younger players in the finals. With that experience we could go all the way next year and indeed the following three.

 

[wixism]

If we don't have the Experience why didn't we draft Ben cousins ya f##k head.
2010 and 2011 seem our year.

 

[abs_of_STEELE]

If we don't have the Experience why didn't we draft Ben cousins ya f##k head.
2010 and 2011 seem our year.

I think he meant footy experience not drug experience.

Oh wait, Cousins has drug experience AND footy experience...
why the **** didn't we get him!?

Nah, I'm glad we didn't take that risk, the media already jump all over Shaw and Didak, we don't need another player for those pack of dogs to jump on.

 

[jerry springer]

as long as we dont give MM a extension mid-season i will be happy

i want him to sweat it a bit and coach for his life and show a bit more ruthlessness.

Then do a review at the end of the seaon and see if he is still the right man for the job

 

[abs_of_STEELE]

as long as we dont give MM a extension mid-season i will be happy

i want him to sweat it a bit and coach for his life and show a bit more ruthlessness.

Then do a review at the end of the seaon and see if he is still the right man for the job

2010
IN:Buckley
OUT:Malthouse

Unless MM gets us a top 4 finish or better.

 

[Dave The Man]

as long as we dont give MM a extension mid-season i will be happy

i want him to sweat it a bit and coach for his life and show a bit more ruthlessness.

Then do a review at the end of the seaon and see if he is still the right man for the job

Not as long as his mate Eddie is there

 

[Tommy Reckons]

Sack the coach, sack the board along with Eddie. No flags since 1990 = 18 years. It's good they are looking after the brand off the field (although the hotel issue has put a dampner on that) but how about looking after the supporters/members. No Cousins when we needed a gun mid, no Gherig when he was available, no Judd when he wanted to come to us before anyone else (that is a fact straight from the horses mouth). WTF is going on at our club when that rat bag cheersquad led by the pop star Joffa who is stopped by little girls for his autograph are headline news ahead of the team. bahh what a load of carp I say sack em' all.

And if people think Bucks will be a ready made replacement, stopp jerking it in the dunny, it's a big risk just like tony Shaw was who put the club back 5 years in his time as head coach.

 

[Skade]

Don't call me a little girl:-]

 

[mattys123]

Ah, it must be that time of year when we bag MM for no reason what so ever.

Forget the 18 year premiership drought, MM has only been there since 2000, when he took over from a Nathan Buckley type risk of a coach in Shaw (Club Champ, media experience only, sounds familiar)

I love Bucks as much as anyone, but I just dont see him being a great AFL coach.

If you want to replace MM in 2010, and want to recruit an ex Collingwood player as senior coach, then surely Scott Burns is the obvious choice.

With Scott Burns you will get a tough hard nut, finals experienced player, who is widely regarded by a lot of esteemed judges as a certainty to coach an AFL team, and he will have had at least one year at another AFL club.

We should bring Bucks back into the fold, but for me his personal communication skills compared to Burns are not of a coaching level that is required for the AFL.

Once again this is nothing personal against Bucks, but if we are to win flags, (please god for f#%@s sake one will do), then Burns is the option maybe with Bucks as his first assistant.

 

[glasseye]

I don't know how their going but Gav Brown and several other ex pies have been floating around with more experience in coaching than Burns or Bucks. Whats collingwood doing wrong that we cannot produce a good senior afl coach is what gets me